Just showing you lots of other reasons why China is a dangerous place.

First off. This translation came out of nowhere, by the same team that translated Saya no Uta. It is a Nitroplus game, their third game infact, and is written by Gen Urobuchi.

Story Summary

Kikokugai (literally “Wailing Demon Town” or “City of Wailing Demons”) takes place in a dystopic future China where technology has become more advanced yet it does nothing to help the enviroment (wow, did I just make a political joke?). Along with the addition of cybernetics, criminal syndicates wasted no time in applying them to enforce their power.

The story features Kong Taoluo, a non-augmented fighter (a rarity in this era), who is following the path of revenge against his sister’s murderers. Additionally he is attmepting to see if there is a possible method of resurrecting his sister though her body no longer exists.

Style of Writing

I had been told that this was one of Nitroplus’s most finest games, and I can see why. Do not see this game as some Ghost in the Shell inspired visual novel. It focuses on the concepts of honor and brotherhood, as well as the addressing the whole “black-and-grey-morality” that seems to seemingly find itself in any Nitroplus game.

Story and Characters

The game has some good characters. You don’t find out too much about them, essentially just enough
to get you interested. You could say that the game’s characters are ridiculously simple, but I find that to be now real bad thing.

I did like how the game did not go over the top in showing off it’s antagonists. If a character is evil, the demonstrate it only once. They don’t show fifteen different scenarios of them killing off innocent people, they just show them as calculating and almost realistic. That said, the antagonists have depth to them (for the ones that last longer than one chapter)

I feel a really good aspect of the story is that it creates the it’s own future world and yet does not rely on it for a good story. It takes place in a future-China, nothing more nothing less. There is no “OMG NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST EXTRAODINAIRE. NUKES R BAD IMPLICATIONS, PHILOSPHY YOU DONT CARE ABOUT”,

For the story to have been bad. There would have had to be more emphasis on the world and less emphasis on the story.

Music

For an older game, the music is rather good. Some of the music feels inspired by Chinese themes (Riverside History, Acid Rain), whilst the battle themes are techno-based (Sword Dancer I) which reinforces the future motif.

For emotional moments, the game’s music becomes more contemporary and modern. One of my favorite tracks “Vow of Sword“, does a great job of detailing the emotions of Taoluo.

Overall

Kikkugai was a fun visual novel. I ended up finishing it in two-hours, and I felt that it was well spent. Compared to Saya no Uta, I’d say that it could have used some voice-acting (though a drama CD was released, with Yukari Tamura as Ruili <3 )

But if you want to know what Nitroplus is all about, go play this game.