Tag Archives: narrative

Nurse Love Addiction

Nurse Love Addiction: Learning to Love is Learning to Trust

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And so, we come to the conclusion of our look at Kogado Studio’s fascinating visual novel Nurse Love Addiction with Kaede Ohara’s route — a path through the narrative that can quite reasonably be regarded as the most “normal” one.

Once you’ve played through Nurse Love Addiction once or twice, it will be clear that Kaede’s path is somewhat separated from the others, since there’s a very obvious “branch point” in the common route that either steers protagonist Asuka towards the three paths that deal with her past, or allows her to sidestep it in favour of Kaede’s story.

Will our heroine be able to get through this experience physically and mentally unscathed? Read on, and let’s explore further. Spoilers ahead, as always.

Continue reading Nurse Love Addiction: Learning to Love is Learning to Trust →

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Rorolina Frixell

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Ah, Rorona. My first Atelier girl; my entry point to the series; and a character who pretty much acts as a perfect representative of what Atelier is all about.

Last time we looked at the Atelier Arland trilogy here on MoeGamer (back when it was still actually a trilogy) we explored a number of the series’ secondary characters. But we never gave any love to the titular leading lady of Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland.

So let’s rectify that right now, then, shall we, what with this ongoing Atelier MegaFeature and all?

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Nurse Love Addiction

Nurse Love Addiction: The Power of Love

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So far in our exploration of Kogado Studio’s visual novel Nurse Love Addiction, protagonist Asuka Osachi has had a lot to deal with.

The interesting thing about this visual novel is that while it might initially appear to be a fairly straightforward yuri romance, as you progress through each of the routes it becomes much more of a mystery narrative, with each character’s unique story path providing a little more of the complete picture.

So far we’ve taken a deep dive into the stories that Asuka’s sister Nao and the mysterious, enigmatic Itsuki have to share. Today, it’s the turn of the game’s resident princess, Sakuya Takeda. Major spoilers ahead, as ever!

Continue reading Nurse Love Addiction: The Power of Love →

Nurse Love Addiction

Nurse Love Addiction: The Smell of Gas Lights

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As we’ve already seen in our initial exploration of the common route and Nao’s ending, Nurse Love Addiction is a visual novel that goes in some interesting and unexpected directions.

Rather unusually for a visual novel where the routes are themed around the protagonist developing romantic and/or sexual feelings for one of the heroines, the game features quite a few examples of relationships that can be quite reasonably regarded as unhealthy — even in that route’s supposedly “good” ending.

A great example is that of Itsuki, a character who you know pretty much from the outset is going to be trouble — and how. Let’s take a closer look. As always, there will be major spoilers ahead.

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Atelier

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy – Life on the Light Side

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It’s interesting how seeing the same events unfold from a different perspective can provide an alternative spin on things.

This is most certainly the case with Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy. Because although male protagonist Raze lives through the exact same bizarrely eventful school year as his counterpart Ulrika, the company he keeps and the context in which he experiences those events makes for a markedly different playthrough.

So, if you were wondering if you should indulge in the game’s excellent New Game Plus mode in order to experience the second protagonist’s story after clearing the first, the answer is a definitive “yes”. Let’s take a closer look at Raze’s route — and the “Extra” scenario that unlocks after you beat both playthroughs.

Continue reading Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy – Life on the Light Side →

Nurse Love Addiction

Nurse Love Addiction: Living in the Here and Nao

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We’re going to spend a few articles exploring and dissecting the visual novel Nurse Love Addiction by Kogado Studio. There will, of course, be major spoilers ahead.

You might think you know what you’re getting with a pastel-coloured visual novel called Nurse Love Addiction that depicts five pretty nurses getting along swimmingly with one another on its cover art. And you might even be partially right; this is a visual novel with an all-female cast of (trainee) nurses and multiple narrative routes, promising potential romantic entanglements with all of the main heroines.

It’s so much more than that, though. And that’s what we’re going to delve into from today.

Continue reading Nurse Love Addiction: Living in the Here and Nao →

Mana Khemia

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy – Special Measures in the Darkness

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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Unlike the previous Atelier games that we’ve explored so far, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy features two discrete narrative paths to follow, plus an “Extra” path once you’ve cleared them both that provides a “true” ending.

Your first playthrough of the game will likely take about 40 hours or so, but your second run with the other of the two protagonists will go by a little more quickly, since you can carry over almost everything from your first playthrough — including the recipes you’ve previously synthesised to unlock cards in the characters’ Grow Books. Expect to still spend another 20-30 hours though.

The two paths cover similar “macro” events and converge at the very end, but they are presented from very different perspectives, with a completely different set of characters at the forefront of the action and a unique series of events on the more “micro” scale. With that in mind, today we’re going to focus on the route fronted by female protagonist Ulrika, and follow up with male protagonist Raze’s narrative path — and the true ending — in a subsequent part. So grab your books and warm up your cauldron; it’s time to enrol in the Alchemy class.

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Refia

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Refia is an interesting character in Final Fantasy canon, because she didn’t exist in the original version of the game she’s from — in fact, none of the protagonists from the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III did.

Indeed, the original Famicom version of Final Fantasy III instead features a player-named party of indeterminately gendered “Onion Kids” — thereby kicking off the series’ occasional, inexplicable obsession with the vegetable in the process. Refia didn’t show up until Matrix Software brought out the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy III in 2006 — which was also the first time the game came West.

Well, just because she wasn’t there from the very beginning doesn’t make her any less worthwhile as a character! So let’s take a moment to celebrate Refia’s contribution to one of the most well-known RPG series in the world.

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My Time With Dee Dee

Summer Loop: The Beach Episode as Existentialist Nightmare

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The idea of existentialism is a concept that a lot of people have been brought into contact with through various forms of media — most notably for us in the gaming sphere, Taro Yoko’s masterpieces in the Nier series.

But how much do you really understand about this philosophical concept — and how might it relate to video games and visual novels? These are the things explored by Summer Loop, the third volume in the My Time With Dee Dee series of visual novels, produced by friend of the site Matt Sainsbury from DigitallyDownloaded.net.

Matt was kind enough to once again provide a copy of the game for me to explore — if you’re interested in trying it for yourself, you can find it right here!

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Chloe Hartzog

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The Atelier series has always been full of excellent female characters. And they’re all much more than just a pretty face.

Chloe Hartzog from Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy is a prime example. In fact, Chloe is particularly noteworthy because of the deliberate choice to make her embody pretty much the polar opposite of almost everything one thinks of when one contemplates a “pretty anime girl” supposedly on the side of the protagonist.

That, of course, makes her supremely interesting. So let’s take a closer look!

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