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Game Information Title: SC2VN Genre: Visual Novel (ADV) Platform: Windows PC Year of release: 2015 Developer: TEAM.ELEVEN:ELEVEN Review If you ask me to think of an impressive feat performed by a human, it would most likely be related to gaming. I'm not huge on traditional sports. Growing up I was always the nerdy kid who was picked last for the football (soccer) and floorball teams every break during elementary school. It also happens that the game that made the 5 year old me a gamer in 1996 was Warcraft II, a real-time strategy game. For many years growing up, I almost exclusively played different RTS games, one of them being Starcraft. I was never any good back then and I'm probably even worse nowadays, relatively speaking. I found it beyond cool to learn that someone made a visual novel with Starcraft as its focal point. I read that it was a short one so I decided to jump in without reading any reviews or trying to learn whether or not I would enjoy it. SC2VN, of course, is a very peculiar visual novel in terms of theme. It is set against the Korean pro-gaming scene, professional Starcraft II specifically. Somehow I find it very exciting with meta-geekery like this. A video game about gaming, that's right up my alley. Just like Genshiken, a manga about otaku culture, or GameCenterCX for Nintendo DS, SC2VN offers a glimpse into nerdhood in the by now mythical Eden of pop culture that is East Asia. I'm aware a lot of people consider Akiba a sort of Mecca for geek stuff but surely the place to be when it comes to competitive gaming culture is Seoul with its eSports bars, PC bangs and never ending tournaments. Admittedly I have often caught myself fantasizing about living in the east, be it hanging out with my imaginary friends at PC cafes in China and Korea or arcades in Japan. The game starts with you, a male or female (whichever one you pick) Starcraft II player aspiring to go pro, leaving your home country for South Korea. I found the premise and sometimes also the presentation of it reminiscent of shounen anime such as Hikaru no Go or Bakuman. Certain segments in particular seem to imply that you will become the best (like no one ever was) through the power of friendship and never giving up. There's also some very standard manga character archetypes, especially the former Starcraft champion tsundere girl. That said, there is no romance in this VN and I'd say that's a fortunate omission as it would've severely crippled the realism that, despite shounen tendencies, is always present. SC2VN at times paints a very bleak picture of a hopeless, uphill climb to the top in an industry that doesn't pay as well or has the opportunity for career that other walks of life have. The writing is concise and kept me interested at all times, there isn't much in terms of bloat conversations but the writer(s) still manage to flesh out the characters surprisingly well. I had judged, if you will, most characters in more ways than just “I like” or “gtfo” by the mid point of the VN. It took me a little over 4 hours to get to the true end but I imagine it would be quicker for most people as I'm a fairly slow reader. I do personally watch Starcraft e-sport and play the occasional game myself but I don't think that's a prerequisite for enjoying this game. It looks far more at the players and their lives as eSports athletes than the game itself and its mechanics. There's also a glossary included in the game for Korean and Starcraft-specific terms used throughout the story. Perhaps the decisions you need to make could be a bit tricky as they're all gameplay decisions but every bad end in the game happens just a few pages after you made the wrong pick so going by trial and error wouldn't be very cumbersome. All in all I recommend this game, in particular to people who are curious about the Korean gaming scene. Honestly I feel this game has the potential to bring two subsets of gamers closer. Its a perfect entry point for an RTS player to get into visual novels or vice versa, a VN fan looking to get into RTS games. Over and out.

First, I should say that this starts out like a first-class nakige in classic non-Key style (which means no loli heroines with weird speech patterns and less than six heroines total, lol). I generally am fond of Applique for giving me Tasogare no Sinsemilla and the Arcology series, but when they screw up, it is usually in a way that should have been blatantly obvious as they were doing it. The protagonist and his daughter (yes, his daughter) are a great combo, and their past is one of one bit of tragedy and despair after another. The protagonist's personality is one I can definitely enjoy vicariously, and Millia (his daughter) strikes a perfect balance between 'genki' and 'emotionally scarred'. The choice of an 'onsen town' as the main setting was excellent, and things were really looking hopeful... ...until the common route ended immediately after you dig into the protagonist's past. Now, I'm all for tearful revelations and the like... but someone with the protagonist's past doesn't just come out and spill the beans only a few weeks after getting to know a bunch of people. That was unrealistic based on his personal setting, to say the least. Worse, the other characters' reaction to it was... weak. Making it worse is that, while you've gotten to know Misaki (the supposed true heroine) a little bit when the split occurs, you've barely scratched the surface with the other heroines. In other words... I went into my first path not caring one bit about the heroine I was supposedly going after. It was like seeing someone setting up a beautiful stained-glass mosaic... and then filling the last few pieces with concrete. To be honest, the haste with which they progressed the last third of the common route is game-breaking for me precisely because the protagonist and his past are looming in the background. Based on this alone, I can say this isn't going to beat Akeiro, though I thought it might compete for VN of the Month when I first started it. I might just update this post if I decide to drop this one... I'm going to finish the path I'm on, and if I don't feel satisfied, I'm dropping it. Edit: Based on my experiences in Honoka's path, I'm going to continue playing, but the problems with the common route and its pacing still apply.