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Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

eden* Review

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eden* They were only two, on the planet is a short visual novel by minori. It calls itself "the last love story on Earth".



Overview

The plot of eden* follows a military officer by the name of Ryou Haruna who has just been assigned to guard the research facility and residence of Sion, a genetically modified superhuman called a "Felix". Sion uses her abnormal intelligence to develop the plans necessary to evacuate all of humanity into space, as the Earth is slowly but steadily heading towards its demise.

However, having been created solely for this purpose and locked up in said research facility since her birth, she has never had a chance to even experience what the outside world is like. At this rate, it doesn't look like she'll ever get a chance to; at least not without a certain someone's help...

Structure

eden* is entirely linear. There are no choices or forks of any kind.



Story

Past the initial setup eden* is very much a character-driven story. Most of its enjoyability comes from watching characters you like interact with each other and the situations presented in various ways. It's a decent formula and it works. I personally wasn't particularly invested in the romance, but it didn't detract from anything either.



Overall the story of eden* is everything it needs to be, no more, no less. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's not trying to be. It's simply pleasant to read. And at a length of just about five hours, that's just fine with me.

To me one of eden*'s strongest points was its visual presentation. Some of the backgrounds and scenery shots were simply beautiful. Given how eden* does place a focus on wanting to explore the world, showing its beauty like that certainly helped the overall immersion.



Characters

Thankfully eden* backs up its character-driven story with a good cast of characters. All of them have some sort of relevance to the plot and none of them feel out of place. And they play off each other quite well too.

Ryou's characterization and character arc are both believably written and he's a likeable guy. It was satisfying seeing him come to realizations about what he's actually looking for in life, even if the end result was predictable.

Sion is a nice twist on the typical sheltered girl and it doesn't feel OOC for her to act the way she does even given her backstory. Her interactions with Ryou gradually get more and more familiar and close which is something I liked a lot.



Every other character still manages to leave an impression in some form or another, and they all affect our main duo in different ways. I can really only praise the writing in this regard.

Soundtrack

Similarly to the visuals, the soundtrack of eden* is quite beautiful. None of the tracks stand out much on their own, but they provide a comfortable and calming atmosphere while reading. The graphics and sound really work well together in making eden* as pleasurable to read as it is.



Why do I feel like I've heard this line about a thousand times already?

Summary

Overall, eden* is a good read. It's probably not gonna end up on top of your favorites list, but you won't regret picking it up either. And with how short it is, it's a good visual novel to just pick up when you have some free time and feel like reading.

I heard minori likes making this kind of light visual novel, so if you like eden* consider checking out their other stuff.



While the game is generally all-ages, there is a special 18+ version you can get on MangaGamer's website, the PLUS+MOSAIC edition. I have only read the Steam release so I can't comment on this particular version.

With all that in mind I give eden* an overall score of

7 / 10

It's worth picking up sometime.

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