YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World Review

 

  

YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World is a hybrid between a visual novel and a point-and-click adventure game. I first became interested in this game when I started listening to the game's music and found out that the music came from an old visual novel from the 90s. I researched YU-NO and discovered that unlike most visual novels from the 90s (and the present to some extent), the game was heavily focused on its plot rather than on its erotic content. I also found out that the game had received a great deal of positive reception throughout the years and has influenced more modern and well-known visual novels such as Clannad, Muv-Luv Alternative, Cross Channel, and Steins;Gate. In the end. I decided to try the game for myself to see what it had to offer.

The beginning of a long and perilous journey through time and space...

For the majority of the prologue, YU-NO fools you into thinking that this game is just your average

high school romcom visual novel. You are introduced to the protagonist, Takuya Arima, a perverted delinquent who flirts with his female peers and teachers while he attends supplementary classes at Sakaimachi Academy. The prologue is the weakest part of the game because it introduces a setting, characters, and plot that visual novel players are all too familiar with, making the game seem generic and uninteresting. Once Takuya receives a strange device called the Reflector from his supposedly dead father, however, YU-NO does a complete 180 and introduces the player to a complex plot that flips the player's previous expectations on their heads.

The introduction of this device hints that there will be much more to this visual novel than just dating schoolgirls.

After the prologue comes the main game, which is split up into four routes. Like most visual novels with more than one route, each route focuses on the romance between the protagonist and one of the game's heroines. Unlike many visual novels, however, each route also focuses on delving deep into the mysteries that Takuya comes across while exploring the town of Sakaimachi. In Mitsuki's route, Takuya learns about the rumors surrounding Ryuuzouji's mansion and tries to expose the truth behind them. In Ayumi's route, Takuya learns about the shady business and research being done by Geo Technics. In Mio's route, Takuya learns about the hidden secrets that dwell within Sword Cape. In Kanna's route, Takuya learns about Kanna's past, her necklace, and her connection with Takuya's father. So while you can see that the game focuses on romance and characterization like most visual novels, the main drive for playing through the game is to uncover more details about the game's plot.and world.

I became completely invested in discovering these details for myself as I played the game and tried to figure out the reasons as to why certain events happened and why certain characters acted the way they did. I felt especially compelled to do this because the game has excellent pacing. Something interesting is always happening, whether it be a dramatic plot twist or just a brief moment of comic relief. Very rarely does the game employ any slice-of-life scenes that don't add anything to the story or characters.

A business meeting? In a decrepit old shed? Yeah, right. 

Since the game blends together a multitude of different genres such as science fiction, drama, mystery, and fantasy and explores the complex concepts of time travel and alternate dimensions, you would expect the game's story to become a convoluted mess of loosely connected ideas and themes that fails to tell a coherent story. Thankfully, YU-NO avoids this by weaving together a tightly bound narrative that explains all of its concepts and ties all of its genres together. The story is highly detailed and broad in scope, featuring a wide range of topics like parallel worlds, lost civilizations, hypnotism, genetic research, and environmental engineering, yet it still feels very focused on expressing a specific set of ideas and themes, such as the idea that time is reversible yet history is not and the theme of destiny and whether one has the power to control it or not.

When you finish the four main story routes and collect all of the jewels, you unlock a final route. I had originally expected this route to be merely a short epilogue that only lasts an hour or two, but this route is in fact the longest route in the game and contains an in-depth plot that answers many of the questions that one had about the first four routes. I had heard that in the original planning for the game, this route was supposed to be even longer than what was presented to us in the finished product. This makes sense because the plot development and world-building feels rushed in some areas, but I still feel like the final route does a great job of wrapping up the story of the game and presents one of the best endings I have ever seen in a videogame. The ending feels like a surreal, out-of-body experience that offers complete emotional satisfaction at the end of one's journey with the game. After completing the game, I was incredibly impressed and feel like I can guarantee that YU-NO has one of the best stories ever told in a video game.

Not your everyday emo teenager suicide.

If you think about the characters negatively, most of the characters fit neatly into common archetypes found in anime and visual novels. For example, Takuya is the perverted delinquent, Mio is the classic tsundere, and Kanna is the coodere. If you think about the characters more positively, though, you will find that they grow out of their archetypes as you observe more of their actions and learn more about their past and present selves. Takuya seems like he only has girls in his mind, but as you investigate objects throughout the game, you learn that he has a wealth of knowledge on various subjects and excels at detective work, such as figuring out the meaning behind a mysterious tapestry. Mio acts hostile towards Takuya because of an event she witnessed him involved in in the past and not just because she dislikes him for some irrational reason. Kanna may seem like she does not care about human contact, but as you learn about her line of work, you realize that she needs it just as much as anybody else.

Mio and Yuuki often visit Sword Cape.

During the main four routes, I feel like almost all of the characters get enough screentime to flesh out their personalities. They also get put into a variety of situations which cause them to act differently and display different emotions, which makes them all the more believable. Mitsuki is the one exception where it feels like she did not get as much characterization as the other heroines, but that is understandable once you realize that her route is the one that is the most focused on solving the mysteries of the story and the least focused on characterization. Minor characters such as Yuuki and Hojo get brief but still satisfactory characterization which suit the roles that their characters are given. The characters introduced in the final route of YU-NO unfortunately do not get as as much characterization as the characters in the first four routes, though they are still interesting and believable (except for the one character who existed solely for a BDSM scene). Character development is present for several characters such as Takuya, who becomes more active and less depressed as he learns more about Sakaimachi, and Ayumi, who becomes more open with her emotions and beliefs towards Takuya after experiencing difficulty with her work. Overall, YU-NO presents great and likable characters who make the story even more enjoyable.

You will come to detest Toyotomi and his shitty blueberry suit.

The gameplay in YU-NO is the most dated aspect of the game, yet it is also what makes the game unique. For the prologue and the final route, the game uses a menu system from which you can select options such as "Investigate", "Talk", and "Move" in order to advance the story. This is how most visual novels from the 90s played, rather than modern visual novels which only require clicking the mouse in order to advance the story. I think that many dislike the 90s gameplay because you can't proceed with the story until you have selected each option from the menu 2-3 times. This may cause a lot of tedium and frustration for the player who only wants to continue reading the story. However, the menu-driven gameplay provides many details on the setting, characters, and story that most modern visual novels often skimp on. Some may also prefer this gameplay because it requires more interaction from the player, which makes the visual novel feel more like a game.

For the main four routes, YU-NO employs point-and-click adventure style gameplay. This provides for even more details and interaction than the menu-driven gameplay, but it could also cause even more tedium and frustration. For example, there is one part in Kanna's route where I know where the person I'm looking for is hiding, but I have to click on several other parts of the environment multiple times before being able to click on the spot where the person is hiding and advance the story. I obtain a large amount of details on the setting, yet it costs a great deal of time to proceed to the next interesting plot point. This gameplay also utilizes item collecting and management. This is good for those who want more interaction from their visual novels, but it also causes a great deal of backtracking if one does not have the necessary items needed to complete a route. This is why the text guide that comes with the English translation patch is recommended, so that the player can follow the recommended route order and eliminate any needless backtracking for items that could interrupt the flow of the story. YU-NO's gameplay also uses a divergence map from which you can use jewels that you have collected in order to warp to specific coordinates in space-time. This gameplay element connects to the game's idea that parallel worlds exist superbly and is also what make the game stand out from both other visual novels and other adventure games.

YU-NO is not usually labeled as a puzzle game, however, the game will surprise you when towards the end of Mio's route, you happen upon possibly one of the most difficult math-based puzzles in all of video games. Right before entering the final route, you will also encounter two more puzzles. The first is easy to figure out because the answer is given in the game's opening, while the second is a tedious language-based puzzle.You can either spend hours trying to figure out the aforementioned puzzles with pen and paper, or you can take the easy way out like I did and look up the puzzle solutions in the game's folder. 

The divergence map on display.

YU-NO's visuals may also appear dated since they use a limited amount of pixels and colors. However, I think that the designers used what they had available at the time well enough to deliver a pleasing visual presentation. The art of the characters may appear to be too similar to other anime art styles from the 90s, yet I think the characters were given enough detail to make them recognizable as 

characters that exist from this particular game. The backgrounds are highly detailed and showcase each setting marvelously. I thought that there were enough CGs to accompany important events in the plot. A dividing aspect of the visual design that is common to most visual novels is that the protagonist's face is hidden. This makes it so that you can place yourself into the position of the main character and become more immersed in the story, yet it makes CGs featuring the protagonist seem awkward and perhaps even cheesy.

A gorgeous shot of a mysterious forest.

Modern video game fans will find the soundtrack to be too simple and boring; merely consisting of beeps and boops. However, for those who can appreciate synthesis music from old video games from the 20th century, this game's soundtrack is too good to be ignored. The soundtrack evokes every kind of emotion possible and is composed with enough skill and variety to make it listenable even while not playing the game. I was originally interested in this game because of its music and have enjoyed listening to several tracks multiple times. The only problem with the game's music is that certain good tracks are only played once in the entire game. In the end, I think the soundtrack is amazing and is one of the best soundtracks to ever be recorded for a video game.

The other aspects of YU-NO's sound department are also well done. The sound effects are numerous, varied, and effective, especially the ones that play when a new mystery is unveiled. The voice actors do an excellent job, for they always put great effort into reading their lines. One unique and positive aspect about this game is that the protagonist is voiced, compared to most visual novels who don't have voiced protagonists.

This game does not hide the fact that it is an eroge, for the first thing you see upon starting the game is a topless woman, eventually followed by a pantyshot of Eriko. The camera angles in the CGs often emphasize the sexual attractiveness of the women by showing their panties, cleavage, and how well endowed they are. For its time, this game has relatively few sex scenes at one scene per heroine. These scenes are also fairly short, especially compared to modern eroges. These scenes are usually placed at appropriate parts of the story where Takuya is becoming romantically close with a heroine with exceptions including a mutual masturbation scene in Mitsuki's route and the previously mentioned BDSM scene in the final route. There is blood-related incest in this eroge, but it doesn't occur until the end of the game and was kept mostly to a romantic level. Honestly, the erotic content for this game was minimal for a 90s eroge and did not bother me that much.

This scene has about 10 different descriptions of her panties.

In conclusion, YU-NO has one of the best stories and soundtracks ever made for a video game, It also has great characters, outstanding sound and visual design, and unique space-time travelling gameplay mechanics. The greatest accomplishment of this visual novel is that even after 20 years, it still outshines the vast majority of games that have been produced until now. Its only noticeable flaws are its generic prologue, partly rushed characters and plot in the final route, and overabundance of fanservice and clicking on objects. I would have to give YU-NO a 10, which means that it's not perfect, but that its flaws are not detrimental enough to diminish the amount of satisfaction gained from playing this wonderful game.

Score: 10/10

Visit VNDB for more info on the game.