Foreword: I could not pass by such curious looking chunige.

Title: Eigou Kaiki

Developer: D.O.

Date: 2004-12-17

VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9790

Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GfYjxdQ7Y&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9HwGDuJtaW_7Xb7oD2dWge

Synopsis: Katsuragi Tetsuo, the protagonist, is a highschool student who lives with his older sister Yuri.

Yuri, having originally lived in a foreign country, is a mainstay of the family and make a living by the work of translation at home. 

They have a bedridden sister with no consciousness too. The doctor don't know what's the disease what makes her to stay lying in bed as a beautiful doll. 

Tetsuo have two good friends too, Izumi, his neighbor and childhood friend, and the good-hearted nerd, Seiji. The three had always live in harmony.

The story begins in the town where they live, where bizarre events start to occur. Mutilation murders, cases where someone is killed with a huge blade, are happening. 

Tetsuo thinks himself to be irrelevant to these cases. However, anxiety rising slightly, Yuri starts to be worried about the hero.

Game type: Cliche chunige

Character Design rating: 6/10

Protagonist rating: 6/10

Story rating: 7/10

Game quality: 7/10

Overall rating: 7/10

Well, no mood for structured review, so let's keep it in the flow of thoughts style. First of all, game kind of disappointed me for how cliche it is. Let's just numerate some of them. School student protagonist. Life in adopted family. Mysterious murders happening to the people he contacted last. Descendants of secret sword clans. Wonder waffle he suddenly discovers, and with such power that it can easily destroy the world. Time loop. Just really - what wicked number of stamps. But in game's defense I should add that no game before actually had such distinct and full number of a classic chunige features. So I guess I'll use Eigou Kaiki as a paragon of chunige till the time I find something even more sickly.

We're not done with the negative part yet. There are five heroine routes in the game which are set in predetermined order. And heroines are actually quite shallow here. Childhood friend Izumi at least has much time to shine, so she's probably the most memorable one. Older sister Yuuri is cool, because she knows the most about the clan secrets, but she still does not live up even to Chizuru from Kizuato. Sleeping in coma Hinano route is the worst as poor girl only has time to sleep in coma or have sex, pretty much nothing else. Fourth route is partly intriguing, because Elfriede is actually our antagonist. Fifth heroine Yun is the True heroine that makes separate routes a united story, but she has a small yet important role to play, actually. Journalist Takami was probably the most intriguing heroine, but she did not get her own route. As a raw outcome, only Izumi is a likeable heroine, especially in her interaction with Tadashi classmate. Basically, there is no fighting heroine apart of antagonistic Elfriede. That was a pity for me. At least there was enough gore, partly due to the reason there are no other heroines able to defend themselves.

All right, lets finish with negative sides already. I still consider this game a small and shaky, but masterpiece. It has enough action scenes and small revelations to keep interest. Different heroines' view is refreshing. The true route sums things up neatly. Game could be even better with some surprise element or more developed heroines. Eigou Kaiki can be roughly translated as eternal regression. I'm glad this concept is explained, but it turns just moving backwards in time, nothing big. I enjoyed this game for the whole first route, but not further due to repeatability. Not sure I'll be as generous to generic chunige in future, though.