Hehe your welcome
Any time I can make someone spend their hard earned dollars buying bishoujo games I will
And now as a spectacular act of necromancy,
I finally add here MY review of Soul Link. Taking in account how late it is, it is hardly a “quickie review”, though…
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Disclaimer/Legal stuff:
This review is written from my own point of view. Because I am no professinal reviewer, it is only intended as an additional information for other people who are not quite sure what to expect from the product and that don’t want to rely completely on the makers product description.
However, because I am an amateur, I might make some mistakes by reporting from my point of view (for example: ignore some points that are not important to me, but might be very important to readers of my review). So, I discourage anyone to decide about buying or not buying the product, only relying on my decription.
Further, it is inportant to point out, that this text only represents my own opinion of the reviewed product and not the opinion of the people who host it on their website.
Name: Soul Link
Made by: Navel
Genre:
This game is a multiview-visual novel, in which the point of view of the narration frequentlz changes, but usually focusses on actions of one character which the plazer sometimes can decide. However, throughout the story, this “focus-character” also changes.
Story:
The Story starts with Aizawa Shuuhei, a fresh-baked graduate from Space Academy entering the building of “Japan central Spaceport” in order to check in to the suttle to his first official assignment on the space-station Aries which is in geostationary orbit at the altitude of 1.300.000 feet.
One of Aries’ main purposes is being a training-ground for the pupils of the Space Academy, so Shuhei looks forward to his re-union with his former classmates as well as other people he still knows there - particulary his younger brother Ryota and their childhood-friend Morisaki Nao. However, because Shuuhei is already deep in thought about them, he apparently blocks the path of an energical young civilian lady who runs him over and vanishes into the building first - with no word of apology! So, Shuuhei’s now is just busy picking up all the little presents that were before in the bag, that he dropped after that person bumped into him. Well, he isn’t all out of luck, because another more kindly looking girl in Space-Academy-learner-uniform shows up and helps him. Her name tag says: Nitta Aki, and apparently, she also knows about Shuuhei. Well, actually, he is famous among all the pupils at Space Academy for graduating one year earlier than the regular period of training - with excellent marks! So, she calls him “sempai” with quite some admiration.
Aboart Aries’ Shuuhei first is hown to his quarter by Morimoto Shigemichi, a civilian employee who is in charge of the quarter-area of Aries, called “Sheraton”. Aries consists of four components that are all joined together in the middle by a crossroad of airlocks, from which every section can be sealed off. Besides the quarter-section “Sheraton”, there are the command-section “Hamal” and the two small side-sections “Mesartim” and “Botein”.
After Shuuhei left his luggage at his quarter, he reports to his new superior, Cellaria Markelight who is in command of the entire station.After that, he has his reunion with Ryota and Nao - which is shortly after interrupted by the sound of the alarm-sirens and orders to evacuate the station. Apparently, an unknown armed spacecraft is approaching and Aries only being a training-station doesn’t have strong defenses. However, because the evacuation goes rather rash, some people remain aboard the station, and have to face the intruders: members of the terrorist organization Hararaks lead by their infamous ruthless commander Gale Lantis - and to find either another way to escape or to get rid of them! For now, even the motives for Hararaks’ intrusion of the station remain unknown.
The terrorist’s dock at the outside of the Hamal-section and take it over immediately, but the remaining people retreat into the Sheraton-section. And because Cellaria is among them (a good commander is the last one to abandon his/her ship!), they manage using her command-codes to seal off all single sections from each other before the Terrorists succeeded in hacking into Hamal’s main computer and thus foiled at least their best-case-scenario for an easy takeover of the station.
Howvere, things are going to turn even worse because because apparently the terrorists didn’t just bring with them their conventional weaponry, but also an artificial lifeform that they have stolen from a secret laboratory before - and what do those strange violent visions mean that gradually start to bother Shuuhei more and more?
The peole who try to hold their stand in Sheraton are:
- Shuuhei
- Cellaria (who just made it possible to defend Sheraton after all)
- Ryota
- Nao (who is the typical kind osananajimi with hidden deep feelings for Shuuhei)
- the woman who bumped into Shuuhei atthe entrance of the spaceport (we learn her name MUCH later, because she apparently really doesn’t like to socialize with anybody, even if it is for the sake of her own survival)
- Nagase Sayaka, a kind but strong-willed girl and classmate of Ryota
- Nitta Kazuhiko, Aki’s brother and another one of Ryota’s classmates. He still doesn’t know that his little sister has arrived on Aries a shortly before. He is a guy with a big attitude, but also for a reason: he indeed IS quite capable. However, because he is full of himself, he doesn’t get along well with others - and particulary not with Ryota who is the little brother of the one who is currently deemed the best ever graduate from Space Academy - and thus his mortal rival!
Gameplay:
Basically a typical NVL: the player has to read the story, enjoy the graphics and sometimes to make a decision for the current focus-character.
One really challenging part is a “labyrith of decisions” during chapter1 that has a time-limit of up to 20 map-decisions - and will trigger a bad ending if it isn’t solved during that limit!
The story is devided into four parts: prologue, and chapters 1-3. When the game is started for the first time, only the prologue will be accessible. At the end of each part, the game will end to and depending on how the just played chapter was finished, the next chapter will be available on the next start of the game - or it won’t. If one chapter has ever become available, an unseccussful replay of the previous chapter won’t lock it again.
Extras:
This game has the usual in-game-extras: CG-gallery, and replay of erotic scenes, that has the player already has encountered.
The limited first edition came with an artbook and a voiced alarm-clock.
My personal opinion:
I enjoyed the story of this game very much: plenty of mystery, thrill and very likeable protagonists! Particulary Nao is one of her own kind!
Also the story held besides some already quite amazing twists and turns also at least two BIG surprises which are of course connected to the solution of the entire mystery - and the situation of the station.
While the story really features a cast of fascinating females, they aren’t the main focus of the story. The new relationships that are build up during the story are rather to be regarded as side-product of the crisis on the station and its solution. The main focus is on the events during the defense against the terrorists and the solution of the mystery fo the reason for it all happening. However, exactly that might have been the reason why I enjoyed this game even more: because it was something entirely else, even if it started of with a typical (military, so perhaps not all typical…) high-school-setting in earth’s orbit…
Oh, and if you ever have a chance, get the limited edition! The voice-alarm is hilarious - and there are three different alarms spoken by the seiyuus for Nao, Sayaka and Aki! -___^
… well on second thought: it might have been a more effective alarm-clock, if it would instead first give the alarm-sound of the Aries-station, then the sound of an airlock opening followed by shots from Hararaks standard-handguns and the voice of Gale Lantis saying “Gemu Oba”…