Muv Luv Alternative Review

Nota Bene:

1. To reiterate, spoilers will be hidden behind spoiler boxes, so feel free to read even if you haven't read the visual novel (just don't click on the boxes if that's the case, obviously). Here is an example box:

This is a test

2. Muv Luv Alternative, as well as its prequel Muv Luv, are mature games for those 18 and over. While this review will not have any explicit content (bar, potentially, a bit of profanity), don't play the game unless you meet the age requirements of the game.

Preamble

This review was originally on another site , but I wanted to repost it here so I can have all my reviews on my blog. Before beginning, let me say that this review was originally just going to be about Muv Luv Alternative. However, because Muv Luv Alternative is part of a trilogy of games, I thought it would be apt to provide a brusque overview of the other two games so people who have never read anything Muv Luv related wouldn't be completely lost.

Brief Synopsis

The Muv Luv trilogy consists of two games made by âge, which are split into three parts. The first game, 'Muv Luv', includes the first two parts called Muv Luv Extra (MLE) and Muv Luv Unlimted (MLU); the second game is the third part and is called Muv Luv Alternative (MLA).

MLE is a rather pedestrian and cliché romantic comedy/slice of life/Moe-harem concoction where Takeru, the main character, spends his school days playing Valgeron (some ESport involving people piloting giant robots in a video game) and hanging out with his harem at high school.

MLU is unlocked after completing the two main heroine routes in MLE. The game plunges our protagonist into war-torn, near apocalyptic hell-hole where a bunch of aliens called BETA have invaded and humanity's only effective way to fight them is to use giant robotic killing machines called TSFs... What? A bit of a change of pace from MLE. Almost all the characters from MLE make a return appearance, and a couple of new characters are introduced to the story.

MLA is the final part of the story; the longest and of a significantly higher calibre than the other two games. Now onto the MLA review...

Graphics

Character Art
The style of the art in the Muv Luv series consists of having extremely brightly coloured hair, ranging from shades of green to purple, all of which are pragmatic and realistic. The characters also boast heightened unarmed combat techniques when fighting BETA on account of the fact that many of their hairstyles are angular to the extent they can be weaponised.

Joking aside, despite the potentially humorous and overly colourful hairstyles, the character art is nicely done. Some people will like it more than others, but I had no quips with it (I actually quite liked it), and I doubt anyone can dislike it to the degree of hating it.

TSF/Mech Design
I have to admit, I've never been into anything mecha related. However, the TSF designs are visually appealing, helping to build onto the action scenes (of which there are plenty in MLA). There are a range of designs including the Imperial Guard's Takemikazuchi, the Imperial Army's Shiranui and the American F-22 Raptor and, while the designs share a lot of similarities, I was able to distinguish between them after a while. The little bit of sci-fi background information as to how they work was a nice touch, and helped to add to the overall atmosphere of the game.

Event CGs
Let's keep this simple: in MLA, there are a very large number of CGs and they greatly help to encapsulate what is happening in the visual novel, particularly in the action orientated scenes. There are a few CGs that are unforgettable; some exude raw visceral carnage and others evoke strong emotional responses. I won't say anymore; I'll let the art speak for itself in game.

Effects, Video and System
Despite MLA being a visual novel, a combination of its long production period (~3 years) and colossal budget  have resulted in graphics that are more suited for an anime. This is particularly prominent in the effects for the sprites; having them dance around the screen during a fight greatly helps to immerse the reader in the action. The game also uses several fully animated short movies during the game to great effect. It's also worth mentioning that the game screen is also slightly stretched, making it widescreen. I don't know how large of an effect this actually had to my experience, but it's a cool addition nonetheless.

Really, my only biggest gripe is that âge goes to all the trouble creating the best graphics ever to have graced a visual novel, only to have it so that there's no CG or BGM playback after you complete the game...Hang on, what? This is a giant non sequitur to me. My only advice is to save regularly, and to keep a backlog of previous save files so you can quickly go back to certain scenes to replay easily - pretty daft, in my opinion.

Overall
The presentation of the graphics in the game is incredible, no doubt about it. It really pushes the boundaries about what you can do with two dimensional sprites, and the graphical prowess of the game exceed almost all other visual novels. I'd go as far to say that it makes something like Fate Stay Night's graphics look amateurish in comparison, especially in terms of sprite effects. That said, at least you can replay the CGs easily in Fate...

Audio

Voices
The voices are generally well done in the game, and match the characters personalities quite well. I don't want to bore you with too much detail, but voices that I think are worth mentioning include Ayamine's and Hayase's voices. In addition, for me, Kasumi's 'Bye bye' will live on forever into time immemorial with Rika's "Nipah!".

A couple of the voices were a little lacklustre, such as Chizuru's (which I found a little irritating - not helped by the fact I just didn't like her character) and Meiya's, which lacked a large emotional range in some situations (like when she lectures you...which happens a lot). That said, Meiya is emotive enough when it really matters, so I'm willing to let that slide.

On a related note, I would like to pose a question: what were âge thinking when they made the audio for the first introductory video in MLA? I mean, it's supposed to be a really tense intro but it turns out being more hilarious than anything. This is a very minor point, but it would have been a lot better if they had just done it in Japanese. It's to the point that the translation patch for MLA adds English subtitles because some of what they're saying is just so difficult to comprehend.

Music
Thankfully, MLA, unlike its counterparts, has a very good set of BGMs. The opening piece, Asu e no Houkou, is done by JAM project and, combined with the opening video, is really effective at presenting the overall tone of the game (the trilogy's way of saying 'Shit just got real'). Another highlight is Storm Vanguard (AKA Takeru's theme song), again really great for keeping the action scenes intense. The orchestral music is also very well done, although a lack of choirs goes against my personal taste, but whatever.

My only real problem with the music is that outside of the heart pounding, on-the-edge-of-your-seat action scenes...it's only so-so. That said, it's not like I expect Dies Irae to play while eating lunch in the PX, but perhaps a greater variety could have been used.

Sound Effects
I wouldn't bother with a SFX section for most visual novels, but considering this is a VN with a lot of action scenes it warrants a few words. As with most things about the game, the sound effects are of a good quality and are well placed. They range from TFSs landing and gunshots, to more mundane things such as background noises when you're eating . I don't think there's quite as many as say FSN (in which you can playback all 432 sound effects...for some reason) but there's plenty to help set the atmosphere effectually.

On the subject of well placed sound effects, one particular crunch-like sound made the scene with Marimo-chan all the more gruesome and poignant

Overall
Not much more I can add without being repetitious: the audio is pretty awesome through and through, with only a few trivial grievances (read: Chizuru) here and there.

Story

Characters and writing
Both the characters and writing sections in a review are usually independent; however, for the case of MLA, I felt that both sections could be combined as the main focus of the game is on its characters, with a heavy emphasis of the development of the protagonist. The series follows Takeru's journey from being a fairly weak-minded high school kid to someone that can accept the consequences of his actions and become the saviour of humanity. This transformation is only possible through hardship, loss and constant revaluation of who himself is: this is MLAs focus, and you see what happens at every step along the way.

The main character is not the only one who develops; almost all the side characters (of which there are a large amount) are interesting, and develop greatly throughout Muv Luv Alternative. From a morally bankrupt mad scientist* (who you can't help but love) to an eccentric secret agent, the cast has a great deal of diversity, and you will no doubt form your own favourites and enjoy watching them develop and grow.

Keep in mind, as well, MLA is in no way a happy story; it's brutally realistic. There is no shonen manga style character shields here. In fact, one could liken the whole affair to a rather twisted and sadistic thought experiment when you take all of your friends' personalities and throw them into a theatre of war to see how they react; there is heartbreak, and there is death. On a side note, although MLA is undeniably centred on character development, there are a large mélange of themes and questions that are explored. Some examples include human greed (and, conversely, human heroism and self-sacrifice), nationalism, ethicality surrounding military structure and political power struggles; MLA is not a two dimensional storyline by any stretch of the imagination.

The sci-fi themes are also worth a mention; a lot of the themes revolved around the interplay between memory and personality, and others looked at the world of quantum mechanics (some ideas were a little far-fetched, mind you, but whatever). Some of it I felt was a little long winded in the delivery, though, and could have been summarised in fewer words (see the "Pacing" section...).

One part of the story that also bugged me was one of the H-scenes in the game. The scene was overly gratuitous and pretty dumb, to be honest; it was a major turn-off of an otherwise important scene in the game**. The other H content is, at least, fairly non-intrusive, which is a positive in my books. It makes me wonder if any H-scenes in the game are even necessary (well, obviously the fact that there is an all-age version of MLA proves that they aren't, but the English patch (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't work with it).

Well, she's not actually completely morally bankrupt considering her relationship with Marimo-chan, but that's what she appears to be outwardly, at any rate.

I think the scene would have been far better if the suffering and pain was focused on - turning it into a Japanese style tentacle porn scene did not help the story's credibility.

Pacing
I'll try to be concise as possible, something which the Muv Luv trilogy, unfortunately, has major issues with. The problem with MLA is that in order to experience it fully, you have to play through hours upon hours of amateurish content, namely MLE and to some degree MLU. While they're not bad games, I definitely would not have played them if not for the fact I knew that MLA existed.

In addition, while MLA has a plethora of really interesting themes and characters, for me a many of the scenes in between the action were tediously lengthy. Introducing a large amount of characters halfway through the story didn't help either, and you had to sit through several scenes of 'catch me up', and some of the characters***  had little character development, despite it being the main theme of the visual novel. Finally, I found the protagonist's weak mindedness at the beginning of the visual novel really trying in a lot scenes, making parts almost painful to read through.

One example is Sumika whose entire character oscillated between 'Kill, kill, kill' and 'I love Takeru'. I know she is supposed to have a mentally conflicted personality due to probable PTSD and memory overlap, but I just wish she had more development after she had become more mentally stable. A pity too because she had a fair amount of potential in that respect. Another of example of poorer character development is Touko, whose name I had to look up because she was so unremarkable. Fortunately, the other characters don't really have this problem.

Overall
The story is axiomatically enjoyable once you get far enough into MLA. While there is no complex wordplay, nor any particularly witty writing, there doesn't need to be; the story is that of exploring how humans survive in desperate circumstances, and seeing how the characters learn to grapple the harsh realities that they live in. It really is the light at the end of the tunnel after MLE and MLU, and, despite its flaws, a very compelling and captivating story. I could have written significantly more on the story, but I think part of the fun is reading the story and forming your own opinions on it, so I'll refrain from clouding your judgement until you've at least read the visual novel (if you have, feel free to discuss below).

Conclusion
The Muv Luv trilogy is truly deserving of the word 'epic', as it is not so much a single story, but a long journey that follows the protagonist through hell and high water. The graphics and audio of MLA are top notch, and the action is thoroughly engrossing. The game has its faults, yes, but the story and characters are such that even with the problems, MLA is still an amazing read. Highly recommended to any visual novel reader. I implore you to at least attempt to read both MLE and MLU before playing MLA, however, as the build-up makes the experience you have with MLA considerably more enjoyable and fulfilling.

+:
• Interesting sci-fi
• Engaging story that discusses a range of topics
• Has a nice cast of characters
• High graphical fidelity = amazing action scenes
• Pilot suits are translucent

-:
• Takeru's character at the beginning can be a little irritating
• Some potentially off putting gore
• Some parts in between actions scenes are prolix, and sci-fi might bore some people
• Chizuru
• You have to play MLE/U first, and MLA can start out a little slow

±
• Sexual content. For some this is good, others bad. I still maintain one of the scenes is incredibly off-putting and shouldn't be there, but you'll be the judge of that, I suppose.

Overall rating: 94/100
(Dislcaimer: This number isn't the end-all and be-all. My opinions can change slightly depending on my mood. Moreover, there will be a certain degree of polarization of people's opinions, so, obviously, different people will almost certaintly disagree slightly with the final score)

**Pictures added soon**