Even if you’re blind and suck at Japanese, taking a whole year to finish a visual novel generally means it’s terrible. Muv-Luv Unlimited was no exception.
Muv-Luv Unlimited picked up where Muv-Luv Extra left off—and went little farther. Our main character is transported to an alternate universe where his lines are suddenly voiced, making you think shit’s about to go down. Unfortunately, the only thing that went down was shit. He’s in the army. He trains. He never goes on a real mission. The end.
This time I didn’t read all the routes. It was a combination of disinterest and a hunch that they’d be mostly the same. I only read Meiya’s endings and Yuuko’s ending. Now I know the key to banging a busty physicist is high-grade sake.
Muv-Luv Unlimited was clearly designed with a sequel in mind. For all I know, everything had to be exactly this boring, or worse, to set up Muv-Luv Alternative (which had better be the best fucking this I’ve ever read). But no matter how good Muv-Luv Alternative may turn out to be, I have to judge Muv-Luv Unlimited on its own merits. It didn’t have many.
The only link I have to this VN is Kimi ga Nomozu Ein and Akane Maniax. I remember watching both anime around 2006. I liked KGNE but was confused and put off by Akane Maniax. Some time later around 2012 or so I watched maybe about half of Muv-Luv Alternative and was trying to figure out how a melodrama about an emotionally stunted guy suffering in a love triangle between a comatose Betty led to believe that 3 years of her life wasn’t spent unconscious, or a barely socially functioning Veronica still just as trapped in the past was related to fighting alien roaches in Mechs. Something about alternate timelines and el psy congroo. For a time I was briefly interested in checking out all these visual novels to see where this wild ride ended, but your reviews…make me hesitate. Though Baito Senshi did warn you about this. Well, if I can slog through lolis to 100% clear Monsume Quest, I could probably do this.
I liked KGNE but didn’t think it was anywhere close to deserving of its then #1 ranked spot on Animenfo. Plus it got me accused of watching anime porn. I never watched Akane Maniax nor had any idea it was part of this franchise.
I’m about an hour into Muv-Luv Alternative. It’s off to a compelling start. When all this is done, I just write a (or find someone else’s) summary of everything you need to know before reading Muv-Luv Alternative. That way you can skip all the filler in good conscience.
Muv-Luv Alternative has been on my things to do list for over 5 years and that list only grows longer every year.
I have played very few visual novels. I played Kanon, Clannad and Steins;Gate after watching the anime versions and really enjoyed them. I would recommend playing Steins;Gate even if you have seen the anime. It was really fun experience even though I knew all the important stuff that was going to happen.
After hearing that they would make Little Busters! anime I decided to do the opposite and play the game first. I love Little Busters!. After completing each girls route the real story starts and it’s fucking beatiful. It’s a story about true friendship between 5 friends. I still really can’t recommend it. It has that Key magic thing in it that annoys some people. The 6 girls aren’t that great characters. I mean I like all of them, but they’re nothing special if you have seen tons of anime. It still has the best main story out of every visual novel I have played. Even better than Steins;Gate and I fucking love Steins;Gate. I guess I’m just a sucker for stories about friendship.
I also think that people were way too harsh on Little Busters! anime. They actually did really good job with the adaptation and I would know since I did all the routes, miniroutes and bonus things when I played it.
I have also tried to play about 20-30 other visual novels, but never finished them for different reasons. I try to avoid visual novels that have somekind of battle system or minigames, because I would only like to read and listen when I’m playing a visual novel. I also try to avoid visual novels that have sex scenes in it. I dislike fanservice in general and by that I mean pantyshots, bikinis and nudity. Lesbians are totally okay.
Are there any visual novels that you have really enjoyed that you could recommend to other people?
I didn’t know VN’s could exist without sex scenes. I thought that was part and parcel with what they were. A bit of fantasy, a bit of sex and a lot of death. But then again my working knowledge of the medium is small. I played Fate/Stay Night all the way through, and I played Monster Girl Quest part 1 all the way through. Started Tsukihime, but never got enough free time to finish it. Other than that I’ve only heard about the more infamous kinds of VNs that are basically smut with mediocre/decent art and average stories. Thinking on it, it would be kinda weird to have sex in Higurashi. It just doesn’t seem like that type of story.
Oh right, Tsukihime. I’ve been meaning to take a look at that one…
I’ve only read a handful myself.
– Fate/Stay Night (Very good, but very long. Fate/Zero is still my favorite.)
– Umineko no Naku Koro ni + Chiru (Some amazing parts, but very long and gets carried away with itself.)
– Muv-Luv Extra/Unlimited/Alternative (Wouldn’t recommend the first two. The third is good so far…)
– Swan Song (only got through a few hours before my laptop died, never resumed.)
Based on reviews, my enjoyment of the anime, and its availability, I’d definitely consider Steins;Gate. Ever17 -The Out of Infinity- also looks really interesting. I looked for it in Akihabara to no avail, but apparently you can just download it for 740 yen. If I went the Key route, I’d probably go with Rewrite. I haven’t seen the anime, and I’ve seen 2 of Clannad’s and Kanon’s.
Sex scenes sound great in theory, but in practice, I put them on auto-read and do household chores until they’re over. I’m down with fanservice shots but rarely the dialogue that comes with them. I’d rather just get on with the story.
“to set up Muv-Luv Alternative” and it is basically this, you’ll see the importance extra/unlimited has when you reach MLA, also if I’m not mistaken it’s actually longer than extra and unlimited combined and it has some big arcs, the first big one (Coup d’état) is shit but it’s after this one it only get better.
Just like you I thought that both unlimited/extra were shit but at the end it really made me feel that it was worth enduring through those two.
According to VNDB, Extra/Unlimited is 30-50 hours, while Alternative is 50+. Shit. Muv-Luv Extra/Unlimited took me a year and half. Assuming Alternative is 50% longer but my Japanese reading speed is now twice as fast, this’ll take me another year.
Unlimited is clearly the weakest of the bunch, and with Extra not being particularly good either that is a huge drawback. But don’t lose faith, while Alternative has a slow and somewhat repetitive start and the first major arc’s quality is highly disputed between fans (I like it but many people hate it because “too much muh politics and muh nationalism”), the two arcs following are amazing in every aspect and are absolutely worth the patience. The level of awesome of those two arcs does hype the last arc to be the best thing ever which it is not though (I think it was underwhelming compare to prior arcs), but that’s just my opinion.
I don’t mind the start so far. It’s slow and repetitive, sure, but it has what most of Unlimited lacked: a sense of purpose.