Norn9 Review, Part One

 

Part One of this review will cover the “recommended” routes. In the route choice screen, there is a recommended order to play the first few routes.

 This post is intended for those who have an interest in the game and have already read about it. For more info on what Norn9: Var Commons is about, go to the official english site!

This is also a spoiler-free review. For the final, overall review of the game, I will go into spoilers for the entire game.

Prologue:

For the prologue, we are in the mind of Sorata. He’s a precocious little boy, the kind that adults seem to love but from your point of view he’s a bit of annoying brat. In the characters I played through first, Sorata didn’t have much significance. However, nothing in this game (or the world) is left to chance, so I look forward to learning about who Sorata really is and why he is there.

 

After the prologue is over, you get three heroines to choose from, of which have three heroes to choose from. I rather like this mechanic. I want other otome games to follow suite and give us a variety of heroines to choose from. I would much prefer that to the one heroine 9 guys harem mechanic, but that’s just me.

Doing this also allows the characters to be broken down into specific groups, so instead of trying to cram all the characters in every route, you get a core group, or clique, if you will, that gives stronger character development for all parties involved.

 

Kakeru:

Okay, so I didn’t really want to play his route. Not on account of Kakeru himself, but the fact that I immensely disliked Koharu’s character. That sort of “teehee so innocent I fail at life” sort of character really grinds my gears. But Kakeru and Senri were the recommended ones to start with, so here we go.

The most cheerful ones tend to have the worst past. What’s sad, for me, anyway, is that it’s not elaborated enough as it should be. It drops hints, it gives a red herring or two, but it doesn’t really spell things out by the end. I wasn’t really interested in him enough to go through it another time to see if I could catch the hints, but basically, he’s not what he seems, and somehow he is something and not something at the same time. Another minor annoyance was in the translation, his name was “Yuiga” for much of the route, even when the characters were clearly saying “Kakeru”. His route did provide several moments of feels, and though I felt it was rushed, it was still a good route that I think fans of this character archetype will enjoy and a good primer to what the game is about.

Senri:

Oh, god, Senri. So he’s the meek character you’re supposed to protect. I don’t really like him. His route never gave me any feels. BUT his character progression is handled really well. He does grow in a realistic way as the story plays out. I think if you’re a fan of this character archetype you will love his route. I don’t really have much else to say about him. Sometimes his voice actor said lines so softly I could barely hear them, even with the “voice” audio tuned to max. Koharu is the only of the girls that could break through his shell, I believe. I enjoyed the power dynamic between the two at the end in regards to their esper powers. I guess his character is so timid that by the end I still felt like Koharu needed to protect him, and it was odd having him protect Koharu, despite his growth during the story.

Sakuya:

Hmm… his character isn’t too boring, but I feel like it was a bit predictable. The highest point of the story ended up being a dead end. I’m not a fan of that particular trope, especially when it’s used to create drama and not so much character development. I think I needed another moment after that to match the excitement and it didn’t come. Boo. I wanted to like his a lot too. As with a lot of childhood friend routes, I feel like too much emphasis is placed on them reminding us they’re childhood friends and not enough on growing their relationship. I do think I would have enjoyed his route a lot more if that moment in the dream played out like it did in the two routes I went through with Koharu, and not in the way it happened.

 

 

Heishi:

First off, his voice actor did an amazing job! I didn’t like his story as much as the others. First off, it’s really disconnected from the main storyline. So much so, that you can probably play his first and not spoil anything. All of the things that happen in the other routes during the end game don’t happen in this route. His bad ending was the best of the three I played. It even has a CG (?!) while the others were just a few lines of text and they ended. His plot was a little silly compared to the other three, but he’s a rather goofy guy so I feel it worked out in the end. I liked how it twisted certain repeated scenes from the others.

 

Overall, of the beginning recommended routes:

1. Kakeru: Not surprised he’s the best. The ending movie has the girls paired up at the very beginning and in my mind I called those the “canon” routes, and his is the one paired with Koharu. A good amount of mystery, lore, and romance in this route.
2. Sakuya: Despite the problems I had with his route, it was an okay read.
3. Heishi: His voice actor did a great job and his route is pretty fun. I admit I ended up skimming through some parts because it felt like they were going in circles.
4. Senri: I am just not too fond of his character archetype. That’s all there is to it.

 

Here’s a mini list of tropes I eat with a spoon and idgaf how bad it is, I will probably love it:

1. Any sort of mythology. From anywhere, I just want gods doing abnormal stuff in a normal world. Bonus points if the lead character is a “straight” or “normal” character in this world.
2. Time travel, any sort of “the past is the future” reversals, the opposite of the typical post-apocalyptic world, basically.
3. Forced relationships. By that, I mean two people who wouldn’t normally be around each other are forced to work together on a project, to get through a problem, ect. and end up falling in love along the way.

 

Guess how many Norn9 hits? While not one directly, one technically, since all the people are “espers” and have some sort of psychic power. I eat that up. The big reveal at the end? Yeap, number two (Text is white for spoiler). And three is the basic premise of it all. So all in all, this game hit every one of my big loves and even though these weren’t the guys I wanted to play through, I still ended up finding a lot to enjoy.

 

The guys on the recommended list are not guys I normally would have played through first, so now that they’re over, I can play the guys that I’m interested in and will hopefully have more in the lore of the world they’re in included (which was something I was really curious about and it’s not gone too deep into the routes I played): Masamune, Natsuhiko, and Akito. Ron and Itsuki somewhat interest me, but not as much as the other three. I have a feeling I should at least play Itsuki before the others, because his route doesn’t seem like it’s as connected to the world’s lore as the other three, but eh, I slogged through four characters I was lukewarm on, time to get the FIRE STARTED!

 

For part two, please click here.