REVIEW: Kara no Shoujo (2008)

Visual Novels are often the very hardest games in the world to critically analyse. The reason for this is as bright as day: They have pretty much no gameplay. They're mainly meant to be played for story (or in the case of anything by 07th Expansion, meant for atmosphere). But what if a game had such a brilliantly written story, that choosing choices becomes something almost impossible, due to your gut feeling telling you "this is wrong" but your head telling you "this is right".

That's how I felt playing Innocent Grey's masterpiece, Kara no Shoujo (The Girl in the Shell)

Kara no Shoujo is the story of a fear-gripped, post-war Tokyo, Japan in the year 1956. Feeling tired from the usual thugs and gangs that have been popping up around the place, Reiji Tokisaka is a pretty bored man. One day, his former cop buddy, Uozumi comes over to his office and tells Reiji about a case that "might interest him". All around Tokyo, there have grizzly murders occurring involving girls from ages 15-19, who have all had one of their limbs amputated. Each girl also has a black, crushed egg implanted into their uterus. It's also implied that the girl was involved in some sort of sexual activity, but not any form of Rape. As Reiji Tokisaka, it's your job to figure out the mystery behind the Black Egg of Neanis murders, by picking choices that affect the story in multiple ways. Something I will always admire about Kara no Shoujo is that it is a game that is not afraid to take a risk whenever it needs to. This is one of the most evocative and engaging game stories I have played in some time, and I must say, I am happy that the people over at MangaGamer gave this game the translation it deserves. Kara no Shoujo is not afraid to tell you that it's full of obscene and questionable content, but it's a piece of art in of itself. The game contains themes of lesbianism, teacher-student romantic relationships, gore and a lot of sexual themes, but it's not used in any sort of fan service or pornographical way. It's by far the greatest and most down-to-earth game story around, due to it;s characters. These aren't characters with set personalities: you shape the world, and therefore, the characters along with the story. What one character may find sexy in one story, they may find disgusting in another. It's all about the route you take and the choices you make. It's almost like a journey into one's own heart, and into one's morality. It's one of the most daring, graceful and out of this world plots I have ever experience from any story in any medium ever.

As with any Visual Novel, gameplay in Kara no Shoujo is (almost) as simple as it gets. You are offered a list of choices, each one of them impacts the story in one way or another. The game does throw a curveball at you every now and again though. Every once in a while, you'll have to do some investigation at a crime scene by examining the scene itself or examining a dead body. Another thing the game likes to throw at you is the Phoenix Wright-esque cross-examination sections. These require you rto pay close atention to character profiles and evidence gathered at crimes scenes as Reiji tries to figure out the mystery. Also, as a tip, play the game through first without a walkthrough and then beat it with one. Trust me on that one. As a whole, the gameplay is excellent for a visual novel, and average for a typical game, so it does what it's supposed to I guess.

Visually, the game is better looking than pretty much every visual novel ever made minus the Days series by 0verflow. This game's major theme is art, and I can certainly see why the development team chose that as the theme of the game. It's an absolutely stunning piece of technology that shows us how detailed and realistic the anime art style can be at times. I love the presentation of this game to death, speaking of which...

The soundtrack. The goddamn soundtrack. Oh my God, I just can't even explain how beautiful and amazing this game's soundtrack is. It is, without a doubt, the best sounding Visual Novel soundtrack I've ever heard. It's perfect right from the get go, witha captivating yet hopeless title theme which really sets the mood right for the game. It's a perfectly complimenting soundtrack and I just adore it.

I will not deny this now: Kara no Shoujo is certainly not for everyone, due to some highly questionable content. But it's that highly questionable content that makes the game full of emotional moments and some amazing writing. If you can withstand everything this game throws at you, I honestly think that you will love Kara no Shoujo, not as a game or a visual novel, but as a metaphor for the cruelty of the human race, a race that lives in an oh so tragic world...

Story: 10

Gameplay: 10

Graphics: 10

Sound: 10

Personal Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE FOR KARA NO SHOUJO: 10/10

A Masterpiece.